OS X 10.9.3 was released today, and with it a bit of a surprise: the /Users folder is hidden. This is the top-level folder, at the root of your hard disk, that contains each user’s home folder.

It’s easy to bring it back though. Run the following command in Terminal:

sudo chflags nohidden /Users

Enter your administrator’s password when prompted, then press Return. The /Users folder will be visible again.

Update: apparently, for some people, the /Users folder is not hidden. It’s not clear why. It’s hidden for me on both my Macs, and both have multiple user accounts, and I’m logged in as administrator on both. If you don’t see it hidden, post a comment; I’m curious to try and figure out why this may be.

It turns out that, after running the above command, and restarting your Mac, the /Users folder becomes hidden again. To ensure the visibility of the /Users folder after restarts, you can create an AppleScript applet, and set it to run when you log in to your Mac. Use the following code:

Replace “your password” with your user password. Save this as an application, and add it to your login items in System Preferences > Accounts.

Update 2: Dave Mark has a great solution on The Loop. He suggests simply creating an alias of the folder. This will remain visible after restarts, and you won’t need to worry about AppleScripts. You won’t be able to name the alias Users, however, since that name is taken by the hidden folder. You can also do this for the /Library folder in your home folder, to ensure you can access it easily.

Update 3: Please read this article for the reason why this is happening. Curiously, it has to do with the iTunes 11.2 update and Find My Mac…

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18 Comments

Yeah. I don’t see why Apple needs to expose any of the file system on OS X. Just show any iCloud docs for an app when you launch it via the Launchpad. That should cover all use-case-scenarios. It’s got more electrolytes!

And, hey, Scott Siegling, you won’t know me cuz I’m pseudonymous, but I remember you, cuz you’re the first person who showed me a running copy of Mosaic, back in an Iowa City medialab, and I was like, “Whoa!”…

I use the same computer for running both OS X Mavericks 10.9.x AND the AppleSeed betas. I updated both partitions with the same copy of the final COMBO version of the downloaded 10.9.3 update installer.

ONE partition is missing the /Users folder.
ONE partition is NOT.

I had repaired BOTH volumes, including permissions, before installation. The only substantial difference between them was that one was updated from 10.9.2 and the other was updated from a three-versions-back of 10.9.3 beta.

To test this BUG, I ran permissions repair on the partition WITH the bug. WRONG permissions were found on both the Users folder AND the Users/Shared folder. Repairing the broken permissions didn’t fix the bug. Your terminal command did.

Further fooling around: I also found this bug extends to /Users/Shared/. as indicated by the broken permissions I discovered. Therefore, I fixed that folder by using an extended version of your Terminal command:

sudo chflags nohidden /Users/shared

And now Shared is back where it should be. Meanwhile, the unaffected partition is still perfectly happy, all folders showing. Really odd bug.

Further thought makes me believe that the broken permissions on these folder somehow lead to a process that could not set the folders to be revealed during the update. At least, I have to assume the broken permissions came first. This is for Apple to repair.

Also of interest: The partition that did NOT have the bug was updated from the other partition that did have the bug. This meant that the happy partition never had to go through the Restart process of the update. It was simply updated. I then booted to it myself, and all was well. Therefore, I’m going to guess that this bug instantiates during that Restart aspect of the installation.

Quit and reboot to the normal Macintosh HD (or whatever the name of your partition). The fix will survive restarts. One poster recommended a value of 1777 for the Users/Shared folder. I don’t know enough about the file flags to know which is the preferable value, but 755 seemed to work for me.

*sigh* Thank you. David. But note that this is just a workaround. I still want a permanent fix from Apple for whatever crap code has created this bizarro problem. I can’t recall an Apple installer bug that was so convoluted.

Oh I agree completely – this is a “just get me by” fix. I have to use a Windows computer at work and like coming home to a computer that “just works”. Unfortunately, it almost feels like Microsoft is creating the Mac updates these days.